Pages

Wednesday, June 11, 2014

Film Review: The King of the Streets (2011)

The King of the Streets (Review) China/2012 Format Viewed For Review: Netflix Instant
Netflix Streaming: Yes
Amazon Prime: No

"...the action can't save the hollow,
generic plot."

After
a vicious brawl lands him in prison, skilled fighter Yue Feng (Yue
Song), also known as The Street Fighter, condemns his fighting and hopes
to live an honest life...

The King of the Streets is a very
simple and very generic story riddled with cheesy dialogue and
ridiculous plot contrivances. The story follows Yue after he's released
from prison as he attempts to stay away from fighting. He starts
volunteering at an orphanage. Conveniently, this orphanage has been
under attack by thugs hired by a rich company trying to buy the land --
by "buy", I mean force them off. So, Yue Feng must resort to his vicious
skills to save the orphanage and redeem himself. The ending was out of
place, misses its mark and, again, features an eye-rolling plot
contrivance.

The story is bad, but the action is great. Yue Feng
is vicious as he kicks his foes several feet through the air and
delivers devastating punches -- all with fierce quickness. There isn't
much fighting during the first half, but the second half explodes with
the aforementioned action. However, the action can't save the hollow,
generic plot. Usually, I'm one who can forgive or overlook plot
contrivances, but this film has too many and they're way too convenient.
The storytelling isn't bad or confusing, but it adds to the plot
contrivances. It's like a buddy telling you a story but having to go
back to clarify every five minutes. ("So, this and that happened, and...
Oh, yeah, I forgot, this happened before it...")

The acting was
mediocre. Yue Song can fight, but he has little screen presence and
lacks charisma -- most of his dialogue was wooden, too. On that point,
aside from the bad plot writing, the dialogue is also very cheesy and
unnatural -- it just doesn't flow right. The cinematography is decent --
I like the style, but some scenes were too dark to see. I think part of
the problem is Yue Song's hand in almost everything -- you'll see his
name in every other credit during the introduction -- lead actor,
writer, director, action director, and so on. It ends up feeling very
amateurish, like a fan film that was very rapidly and sloppily put
together.

Overall, I give King of the Streets
the benefit of
the doubt. Maybe it is a fan film, or maybe it's a spoof of the
old-school martial arts films? (the dialogue is equally cheesy.)
Regardless, the story is bad and severely flawed, but I was overall
entertained. I really enjoyed the exciting fighting and I had a few
laughs -- maybe they were unintentional, though.